Bundesliga Spieltag 8: three days of unabated melodrama, unlikely collapses and almost painful intensity. It started with Dortmund's 2-1 away win at Köln on Friday night, a full-on affair that left everybody involved slightly disorientated. For Borussia, it was a case of (altitude-induced) nosebleed: their seventh win in a row catapulted them to the top of the table past Mainz (1-0 losers at home to Hamburg), an unfamiliar position they haven't enjoyed for 3,087 long days, since they won the 2001-02 season.

In his elation, Kevin Großkreutz channelled both Martin Luther King and Enrico, the frighteningly unfunny clown from 1980s Austrian TV kids show "AmDamDes" (catchphrase: "Soll ich sagen? Ich sage nicht" - should I say it? I won't say) in the same breath. "We dream about the championship, but we don't talk about," said the 22-year-old international.

It's a clever ploy, that. Manager Jürgen Klopp quickly warmed to the theme and took not talking about the Meisterschaft to the next level. "We are not talking about the Meisterschaft, I couldn't care less about the table," insisted the 43-year-old. "I have 0.0% interest in the table. Anyone talking about winning the league now has no idea about football," added sporting director Michael Zorc. But the most eloquent non-discussion of BVB's title credentials came from Hans-Joachim Watzke. "Being top after eight games means nothing," said Borussia CEO. "It's totally unrealistic to talk about the championship. We are not ready to burden our seven, eight players who aren't even 23 years old yet with that kind of baggage. Setbacks are guaranteed to happen."

In fact, dreamers and realists were proven right in roughly equal measure by the thrilling contest in the RheinEnergieStadion. Dortmund, unperturbed by idiots who had shattered a glass window of the team bus with a brick before kick-off, completely dominated their opponents with high-tempo, slick attacking football from the get-go and took the well-deserved lead (Blaszczykowski, 20'). Plenty more excellent chances came and went without before the break. Köln, plagued by internal rifts – dropped goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon had left the team hotel the night before the match in protest, Lukas Podolski had given a highly critical interview – were nowhere.

In the second half, however, Dortmund tried to conserve a bit of energy. They relied on counter-attacks but didn't execute them properly. With the crowd waking up, the home side started believing. Borussia came under immense pressure, even the formidable centre-backs Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels suddenly looked shaky. Podolski's fine equaliser arrived late but totally deserved. "We gave them too much space," conceded Turkish midfielder Nuri Sahin later.

Last season, Dortmund often took unnecessary risks after going one up and ended up with nothing. This year, the plan was to play more rationally. "We have worked on that in the summer," Klopp said. Friday night suggested that much more work will be needed. "This team are not good at administrating [a game], they always want to create," said Watzke. "Full throttle is what they do best."

Dortmund's reaction to the equaliser bore that out. They flooded forward again, with "greed and passion", the will to win was greater than the fear of losing the game. It was fitting and especially sweet that Sahin, their best player of the season so far, scored the last-minute winner: Podolski had provoked him with "3-0" gestures (in reference to Germany's win over Turkey) after the equaliser. Sahin, who is now showing the very Cesc-like qualities that had Arsène Wenger track him as a teenager, celebrated his goal right under the nose of the Germany striker. Both were booked for their troubles but made up after the final whistle.

Dortmund's squad depth makes them a more realistic contender than Mainz to indeed go all the way. A prolonged excursion in the Europa League might still come to hurt their domestic ambitions come spring, however, especially if they don't manage to slow down a little. Sahin told Ruhr Nachrichten how assistant coach Zeljko Buvac had tried to calm them down during the recent win over Kaiserslautern. "When we were 3-0 up, he asked us to pace ourselves. Next second, Hummels is rushing forward as if there's no tomorrow. How was I supposed to stop him?" The game finished 5-0.

Kloppo's boys might yet hit the wall at some stage but in the meantime, it looks as if greed is indeed good in this particular remake. "None of us has won any significant titles, of course we're hungry," said Hummels. Expect more talk of not talking about the championship in weeks to come and quite a bit of dreaming, too. Borussia top, Schalke going down and Bayern nowhere: it's the stuff black and yellow fantasies are made of.

Talking points

• You don't need a degree in sabermetrics to understand the strong correlation between wages and performance in professional football - more equals more, generally speaking. In Bremen, however, they seem to have discovered a different dynamic. Following some poor results, only 50% of September's wages were paid out to the players. Sporting director Klaus Allofs didn't officially confirm employing the legally dubious tactic that is widely used in Serie A but has never been seen in the Bundesliga before. "We have taken measures that helped the team develop," he said cryptically. Seven points in October, including three against unfortunate Freiburg on Saturday, seem to have vindicated the populist policy but it's questionable how much impact the move has really had on the players. After speaking to the German PFA, they all knew that Bremen could at worst delay the payment of the wages for a few weeks, not dock them altogether. Next month's pay-cheque will compensate them in full. "Allofs seemed embarrassed that he could only throw cotton wool (at the players) instead of putting them into the thumbscrews he seeked," wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung. No wonder Marko Arnautovic told reporters that the story was "never an issue" after the 2-1 win over Robin Dutt's team.

• Another under-performing club took a more traditional approach: Stuttgart fired their Swiss manager Christian Gross before the 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers Schalke 04. The Swabians were apparently unwilling to wait for their customary second half of the season rally under a new manager and thus pulled the plug a little earlier than usual. Former player Jens Keller, who swiftly stabbed Gross in the back last week ("he never listened to my ideas") was put in charge on a trial basis. His side attacked the mostly shambolic Royal Blues with renewed gusto and were unfortunate to suffer another costly refereeing mistake. A probably decisive strike from Cacau that would have made it 2-0 to the visitors was wrongly ruled offside. "As of now, we're in a relegation fight," said Schalke's defender Christoph Metzelder. Suddenly, Wednesday's Champions League game against Hapoel Tel Aviv seems little more than an unwelcome distraction.

• Saturday saw Steve McClaren's most impressive Bundesliga performance to date – before the game. The Wolfsburg manager spoke rather excellent German in the pre-match interview. His team were also extremely fluid, at least until 20 minutes from time, when Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Simon Rolfes was brought on in the Volkswagenarena. The German international who missed the World Cup with a knee injury, turned the 2-0 deficit (goals from the divine Diego and Grafite) into a spectacular 3-2 win with two assists and an 82nd minute winner. It was the third time Wolves lost a match late on after leading comfortably. The Englishman blamed "two crazy minutes" and silly mistakes from keeper Marwin Hitz and defender Makoto Hasebe for the turn-around. Bild dubbed him "Steve McSiege-weg" (Steve McWinsGone) but it's unlikely that this nickname will catch on.

• On the face of it, being stuck in a Chilean mine for months and nearly dying doesn't really compare with the plight of being Europe's most expensive bench-warming striker. But that didn't stop Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez ascribing his hat-trick against Hannover to fate. "When I heard that there was a Mario Gomez among the men and that 33 of them were saved, I had a good feeling, I knew it wasn't a coincidence," said the 25-year-old who wears the, wait for it, No33 shirt. At one stage of his post-match interview, the international claimed he had 33 text messages on his mobile, too, but then retreated from reading too much into "Chilean mumbo jumbo". His 63-year-old namesake sent some good wishes nevertheless. "I'd like to come to Germany", he (allegedly) told Bild: "I'm no competition for him. He has to get the ball in, I only wanted to get out." Louis van Gaal, who had been more than happy to send the miner/striker to Liverpool on loan in August, has promised to stick with Gomez the Younger for Tuesday's CL match with Cluj.

• Thomas Tuchel bemoaned "a lack of discipline" and "too much wild play" after his team's first defeat of the season. Hamburg's late winner in the Bruchwegstadion (Paolo Guerrero struck after Ze Roberto stole the ball in the box in the 89th minute) saw a decent Mainz lose their lead at the top and the chance to set a new Bundesliga record with eight opening wins. "I'm disappointed but our world won't collapse,æ said the coach. He would have managed to bear the hype a little longer, he added, but perhaps the defeat came at a good time. With Leverkusen and Dortmund up next, the Mainz players might be grateful that "the media circus" (Tuchel) has temporarily moved on.